The Final Broadcast
by CaBrPi
Summary: Inspired by the infamous War of the Worlds radio drama, this one-shot chronicles Godzilla's final 1954 rampage in Tokyo from the perspective of a young radio news reporter covering the event from the Tokyo Tower.


This is Yoshi Takagawa of RTY News in Tokyo. You can hear the sirens wailing all across the city. Every district from Akiruno to Odogawa is being evacuated by the Self-Defense Forces, but the roads are clogged with wagons, and occasionally, automobiles. The people are being urged to bring only what they can carry, and leave everything else behind to be crushed beneath the feet of the approaching monster, which has held Japan paralyzed in its cold, reptilian grasp. 'Godzilla has been detected by American nuclear submarines approximately eight hundred meters east of Tokyo Bay at eight-fifteen PM, moving in a westward direction at twenty knots. Please evacuate immediately. All districts evacuate immediately. Bring only what you can carry. Keep your children with you. Do not use vehicles,' repeats from the Public Announcement System. He will be here soon.

From here at my position at the top of Tokyo Tower, I can see the pitch-black expanse of Tokyo Bay, completely devoid of any sign of life. It seems the very life is being drained from the city I hold so dear. I imagine that even the lowliest of fish has fled before this hell-spawned god, much like my family, my friends, and most of my colleagues have done.

All of our defenses have been crushed. Godzilla simply shrugs off bombs like mosquitoes. Everything we've worked to build is nothing compared to the might of this beast. Rockets, missiles, cannon fire, bullets! Everything bounces off like a small pebble might bounce off of a playing child. A child of demons.

This child has come to Tokyo once before, only days ago, when he destroyed most of the harbor. Godzilla is a reckless child who cares nothing for his toys, and we are his playthings.

_'Godzilla has been detected by American nuclear submarines approximately four hundred meters east of Tokyo Bay at eight-twenty-two PM, moving in a westward direction at twenty knots. Please evacuate immediately. All districts evacuate immediately. Bring only what you can carry. Keep your children with you. Do not use any vehicles...'_

Rockets, missiles, cannons, and bullets. Our greatest achievements cannot stop it. He is the most powerful thing our race has birthed. Being in his very vicinity can cause radiation sickness and even death, as we witnessed on Odo Island, where almost half of the population has succumbed to the disease. Ten percent, I have been told, have already died of either radiation poisoning or cancer.

There is nothing we can do. The Self-Defense Forces have constructed a massive fence on the coast, fifty meters tall, thirty meters thick, and several kilometers long since the last attack, and this fence will be electrified once the beast rears his ugly head to avoid melting the wires.

_Boom. _What was that sound? A cannon perhaps?

_Boom._ No. This is no cannon.

_Boom._ Another.

Ladies and gentlemen, he is very near now. The Naval Defense Forces have failed. The Americans have failed. The Russians have failed. The United Nations-led joint naval strike has failed. We have tried everything short of an atomic bomb. I fear that may not last much longer.

_Boom... Boom... Boom..._

Ladies and gentlemen... Godzilla is he- _wwwwraaaaaaauuuuuaaaaahhh_ -oar like resin fills the air.

_Boom... Boom..._

_Grrrraaaaauuuuugggghhhh..._

Circles of white light are searching, scanning every inch of the bay. Looking for- There he is! I see him! The head, rising up out of the water slowly, with each step!

_Bang! Bang! Bang!_

The Defense Forces are making their stand now! Cannons are firing from every angles, positions from here to Yokohama! Large guns, guns that can only be moved by trucks and trains! The explosions are throwing up sheets of black water, flashing, and then fading into the darkness... Godzilla doesn't relent... The footsteps continue...

_Boom... Boom... Boom..._

He's rising higher now, and he's coming to the fe- _..._

They've turned on the fences. Maybe the power of electricity will be enough to make him turn back...

_Zzzrrrt- bzzzzt- !_

It seems to be working. He's struggling! He's slowing down! The wires are getti-

_Chhhhhuuuuuuuuhhhhh..._

He's grabbing the tower... bending it!

_Thwap! Thwap! Thwap!_

The wires are snapping. He's totally unfazed! Tokyo won't see tomorrow...

_Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!_

The Defense Forces are concentrating on slowing Godzilla down as much as possible! They're giving him everything they've got, but it's no use! Godzilla shrugs off the assault, and- what this? What's this? A flash of light from his spines, a blast of... of what... appears to be pure energy is melting the steel frame of the fence, and the supports are collapsing. The sheer heat of this new attack is causing untouched wires to snap.

_!_ _Ratatatatatatatatatat!_

The machine gun emplacements are joining the cannons!

_Ratatatatatatatat! Bang! Ratatatatatatatat! Bang! Bang! Ratatatatatatat!_

Godzilla's ignoring our counterattack completely...

_Crackle- ._

Godzilla's fire! It's destroying everything it touches. The soldiers... they're... they're dying! Bursting into flame at the first touch of the death ray! Trees, buildings, people not even touched by this ray are bursting into flame because of the heat!

Godzilla has harnessed the fire of the atomic bomb and has learned to cast it back at us. The Defense Forces are wiped out.

_Boom... Boom... Boom..._

Godzilla... is heading deeper into the city. Shoving buildings aside like towers of cards or a child's blocks. I can hear the people screaming, trying desperately to flee with their loved ones, fleeing like grasshoppers from the trampling feet of a man. The Tokyo clock tower rings, signaling the half hour. Godzilla eyes it tentatively, unfamiliarly. Splits open its maw, lunges forward with fangs bared, clamps down on the stony surface, which crumbles under the monster's massive power. Godzilla drops the top of the tower, and it crashes to the street, obscured by buildings.

Godzilla is moving on now, heading north. He bakes an entire block with his ray, smashes through a building on the opposite side of the street, kicks down power lines. Street lights go dark in the immediate area.

Godzilla is making his way toward the Taito prefecture, leaving Chuo and Koto all but destroyed.

The crunch of vehicles and houses beneath the monster's feet are audible even from this distance. He looms above the city like a devil, destroying for no apparent purpose but for the sake of destruction. The death ray ignites multiple city blocks now! Ueno Park is next! The statue of Saigo Takamori is no more!

_Bang!_

Tanks are approaching from the west now, firing on Godzilla from positions hidden from the monster's view.

_Bang! Bang!_

Godzilla seems distracted, maybe annoyed by the attack.

_Bang! Bang! Bang!_

He's turning, searching for them, his evil eyes glaring at the ground.

_Bang! Bang! Ba-!_

It doesn't matter. In one fell swoop, Godzilla has wiped out the entire squadron. He gazes out at the city-

_!_

Fires are now spreading from Adachi and Kita to Nerima. It seems nothing can stop Godzilla now.

He's heading through Bunkyo, knocking aside buildings with his feet, crushing anything that dares remain beneath his feet.

_Whooowhoo!_

Oh no! The express! The eight-forty express! Godzilla is right on the tracks! They stop just in time to avoid crashing into the monster's feet!

But... they have his attention. People are scattering out of the cars as Godzilla dips down and takes the train in his mouth. Cars detach from each other and crash to the ground... crushing those poor souls unlucky enough to be caught under them.

The engine drops off, and crumples like a paper sack. Godzilla shakes the train car in his mouth, spilling yet more passengers out, and then carelessly drops it... He moves onward toward Shinjuku...

Godzilla seems unimpressed by the buildings there that reach upward, grasping at the sky. He shoves them out of the way as he pleases. His toes uproot bridges. Footprints remain embedded into the ground.

_Fwwwwwwooooooosssssssshhhhh!_

Buildings collapse like matchsticks, then spread fiery dust over the ground. Godzilla moves through it like it is an ankle-deep puddle of water.

_!_

Godzilla sweeps his ray across the ground, spreading this inferno further. It is almost as bright as day in Tokyo, here at almost nine o'clock in the middle of November. Godzilla is slowly creating his own sun.

He's moving on toward Shibuya now- no, stopping just at the bord-

_..._

And in seconds... Shibuya...

Godzilla has turned Tokyo into a sea of fire. Shibuya, Shinjuku, Taiyo, Shuo, Koto, Sumida, Katsushika, Adachi, Kita, Itsabashi, Nerima, and everything in-between are totally engulfed in this sea of fire brought about by Godzilla.

He- Oh, God, no! He's heading this way! Heading directly towards this very tower! He's trampling everything between us and him! My colleagues are f-fling-ing thems-selves from the rai-lings.

_Boom... Boom... Boom..._

He's covering the distance remarkably fast... I am resigned to my fate now. My story ends here. To my family- I love you. I regret only not being able to see my son grow up. Godzilla is unstoppable. There is no time to get away.

He's here now. I can smell dead fish. He's grabbing the structure of the tower. He's pulling, teari-

_!_

The tower won't hold out much longer! Farewell in this brave, new world of ours.

_-_


End file.
